wendy shang

Last year, when I first read The Great Wall of Lucy Wu, the wonderful middle grade novel by Wendy Wan-Long Shang that recently won the 2012 APALA Asian/Pacific American Children’s Literature Award, I noticed something interesting in the Acknowledgements:

No acknowledgement would be complete without recognizing my sources of support: my mom, who told me I could do anything; my dad, who made me believe writing was in my blood; my husband, who wrote ‘writer’ on our tax forms and has never (never!) once wavered in his support; our three beautiful, funny children; my amazing extended family; Fairfax County Public Library; A&J Restaurant, which makes absolutely inspirational bowls of soup. Get the Shanghai-style wonton soup.

Is there anything more exciting than a writer who cites soup as a source of inspiration? If you’ve read the book, you know it opens with a restaurant scene and contains many food references, including a reverential beef noodle soup as well as homemade dumplings. Yum!

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“When we sat down to dinner, even I had to admit that Yi Po’s dumplings were something special. Better than the dumplings Mom bought at the store, better than the ones at Panda Café. There were lots of different flavors in the filling — a little ginger, a little garlic, some sesame oil — and they all stood out and blended together in turns. Every bite left me wanting more.” ~ Wendy Wan-Long Shang, The Great Wall of Lucy Wu

Dribble, dribble, pass, shoot . . . SCORE!!

*the crowd roars and chants*

“Wen-dy, Wen-dy, Wen-dy, Wen-dy!”

It’s our very first Soup of the Day celebration this year, and we can’t stop cheering for Virginia author Wendy Wan-Long Shang! Her debut middle grade novel, The Great Wall of Lucy Wu (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2011) has officially hit the streets!!

You know how excited I get about first books. Well, my normal level of enthusiasm is ramped up to the nines for this tender, funny, poignant and indescribably delicious story. Love love love it! *smacks lips*

Eleven-year-old Lucy Wu is looking forward to having a perfect year: she and her fellow six graders will rule the school, she’s going to try out for captain of the basketball team, and her “Miss Perfect” sister Regina is going off to college, so she’ll have their room all to herself. Lucy can’t wait to start decorating! But her all great plans begin to crumble when she learns her long-lost great-aunt Yi Po will be visiting from Shanghai and staying in her room — not for a week or two, but for several months!